1. Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
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2. Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
Florida Benchmarks
SC.6.E.7.4 Differentiate and show interactions among the geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.
MA.6.A.3.6 Construct and analyze tables, graphs, and equations to describe linear functions and other simple relations using both common language and algebraic notation.
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3. What on Earth? What is the Earth system?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What on Earth?
What is the Earth system?
A system is a group of related objects or parts that work together to form a whole.
The Earth system is all of the matter, energy, and processes within Earth’s boundary.
Earth is a complex system full of living and nonliving things and the matter and energy that continuously cycle through the smaller systems.
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4. What is the Earth system?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What is the Earth system?
The geosphere is the mostly solid, rocky part of Earth. It extends from the center of Earth to the surface of Earth.
The crust is the thin, outermost layer of the geosphere.
Oceanic crust is 5 to 10 km thick. Continental crust is 15 to 70 km thick.
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5. What is the Earth system?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What is the Earth system?
The mantle is below the crust. It is about 2,900 km thick.
A small layer of solid mantle, right below the crust, flows and causes movement of the plates of the crust.
The core of Earth has a radius of about 3,900 km. It is made of iron and nickel.
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6. What is the Earth system?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What is the Earth system?
Describe the characteristics of the layers of Earth.
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7. Got Water? What is the hydrosphere?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
Got Water?
What is the hydrosphere?
The hydrosphere is the part of Earth that is liquid water.
Oceans, lakes, rivers, marshes, and groundwater are part of the hydrosphere.
Water is constantly moving through Earth and even into and out of living things.
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8. Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What is the cryosphere?
The cryosphere is made up of all of the frozen water on Earth.
Snow, ice, sea ice, glaciers, ice shelves, icebergs, and frozen ground are all part of the cryosphere.
Changes in the cryosphere can play an important role in Earth’s climate and species’ survival.
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9. What a Gas! What is the atmosphere?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What a Gas!
What is the atmosphere?
The atmosphere is a mixture of mostly invisible gases that surrounds Earth.
About 78 percent of the atmosphere is nitrogen. Oxygen makes up 21 percent of the atmosphere.
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10. Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What is the atmosphere?
Other gases in the atmosphere include argon, carbon dioxide, and water vapor.
Some of the energy from the sun is trapped by Earth’s atmosphere, which helps keep temperatures high.
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11. Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What is the atmosphere?
Part of the atmosphere absorbs and reflects harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun.
Other parts of the atmosphere cause space debris to burn up before reaching Earth’s surface.
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12. Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What is the biosphere?
The biosphere is made up of living things and the areas of Earth where they are found.
Organisms usually need oxygen or carbon dioxide to carry out life processes.
Liquid water, moderate temperatures, and a stable source of energy are also important for most living things.
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13. What’s the Matter? How do Earth’s spheres interact?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
What’s the Matter?
How do Earth’s spheres interact?
All of the five spheres of Earth interact as matter and energy change and cycle through the system.
If matter or energy never changed from one form to another, life on Earth would not be possible.
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14. How do Earth’s spheres interact?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
How do Earth’s spheres interact?
Matter moves between Earth’s spheres.
Sometimes, matter moves through many spheres before returning to a sphere.
Energy moves between spheres. Energy also moves back and forth between spheres.
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15. How do Earth’s spheres interact?
Unit 3 Lesson 1 Earth’s Spheres
How do Earth’s spheres interact?
How many of the parts of the Earth system can you identify in this image? How do they interact?
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